Between the tribulations of unfilled jobs and talent shortages, companies and research firms alike are scurrying to adopt new ways to recruit and retain talent in tech.  

SynED – an educational nonprofit focused on career building – released volume four of their Agents of Change series. “This series examines the personal motivations and strategies implemented by public and private organizations and creates a playbook for others to follow,” SynED President and Executive Director Scott Young told SDxCentral.

Volume four: How a New Apprenticeship Model May Finally Bridge the Tech Hiring Gap identifies a new strategy to developing diverse candidates in tech and addressing the talent gap. 

“Data shows that hundreds of thousands of tech job openings are going unfilled each year in the United States, while frustratingly slow progress is being made on the tech industry's lack of diversity,” SynED stated.

This analysis champions the modus operandi of another non-profit, Apprenti, that adopts an adjusted apprenticeship model within tech to address the omnipresent talent shortage concerns.

SynED vaunted the case study’s program with a 97% retention rate and 87% of recruitments coming from underrepresented populations. They have placed over 5,000 employees in the last five years according to Young, and the retention rate is equal for apprentices with and without a college degree.

“Despite a challenging policy and funding landscape, Apprenti continues to expand across the United States,” SynED stated. It attributes the non-profit's growing success to word-of-mouth amongst executives and hiring managers speaking to successful retention. 

Through the Good Jobs Challenge, Apprenti is set to expand, backed with $23.5 million from The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.

SynED believes Apprenti is a great case study of instilling confidence – a chief tenet within workforce resiliency – to support both workers’ and employers’ longevity. 

Director of Talent Pipeline for the Cincinnati Chamber Christina Misali says “Apprenti is making the apprenticeship model more approachable for companies” by paving a successful roadmap of its implementation. “They're making it easier for the apprentices too," she added.

According to the release, SynED’s latest volume dives deeper into what makes Apprenti’s approach successful within tech when most traditional apprenticeship models are too slow for the industry's speed of change.

This includes the “watch and learn” model of shadowing an employee, often for months, before doing work. "Classroom instruction is a common feature, and the length of apprenticeships can be up to five years. The technology involved in tech jobs makes this impractical, if not impossible,” SynED stated.

Jennifer Carlson, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Apprenti, stated in the release, "Plumbing went from galvanized, to copper, to PVC over 80 years. We in tech have changed languages three times in the last five years." SynED touts that their adaptive model adjusts to match individual employer needs and accelerates the “watch and learn” process to one year.

SynED’s release follows three preceding volumes [in chronological order]: Agents of Change, 100 Women in 100 Days, and San Diego Cyber Center of Excellence. "This series is designed to inspire and guide those who want to improve the process of connecting trained individuals to the employers who need them,” Young stated.